1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an electronic parking brake (EPB) system including an EPB actuator, having a motor, to operate the motor to generate parking brake force with respect to a wheel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a brake system includes a parking brake, which is normally referred to as a hand brake or a side brake, to keep a vehicle stationary. The parking brake is actuated as a driver operates a parking lever provided at one side of a driver's seat within a vehicle. If the driver pulls the parking lever, a cable connected to the parking lever is pulled, serving to keep a rear wheel brake assembly connected to the cable in an operated state. In this way, brake force is generated. On the contrary, the cable is released when the parking lever is released, which releases the brake force.
The above-described actuation of the parking brake using the parking lever requires the driver to directly operate the parking lever. If the driver parks a vehicle without pulling the parking lever by mistake, the vehicle may unintentionally move, e.g., on an incline, causing unexpected accidents. Furthermore, operation of the parking lever whenever parking a vehicle or initiating vehicle traveling may make use troublesome. In particular, women or the old and the weak have difficulty in operating the parking lever.
For this reason, an electronic parking brake (EPB) system has been developed to electronically control actuation of the parking brake. The EPB system is mounted at a normal disc brake to function as a parking brake.
Even if the driver does not manually operate the parking brake, the EPB system automatically applies or releases the parking brake through a simplified switching operation or according to control of an electronic control unit which generally controls the parking brake.
The EPB system includes an actuator having a motor to generate brake force and an electronic control unit to control the actuator.
The electronic control unit control the actuator based on switch manipulation to apply or release the EPB system.
With recent increase in use of the EPB system, maintenance and inspection of vehicles having the EPB system mounted therein have been required.
Therefore, there is a high necessity for a system that more simply tests the actuator of the EPB system.